A Renewed Love
by Nephite
Summary: A little fic about life after Peter returns to existence, how he tries to find a new normal, and how Olivia tries to get answers from him.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Alright. So I haven't written a fanfiction in a long time, so I'm throwing my hand back in there and this is what happened. Enjoy :)**

The tyranny of it almost made my head spin as I turned around to see if I was hearing things correctly. This man actually believed he had the power to dictate my every move after I had only been back into existence for fifty minutes?

"Excuse me?" I turned around and looked at the man who I once deemed as someone I trusted. Someone who I knew I could go to with my problems.

"You can't go anywhere until you have been properly tested." His deep voice ordered. That was not what I was going to do. Remembering the other fringe cases I had worked, I would probably end up in some little room receiving test after test until my mind finally decided to give out.

"I just got back after being stuck in hell for two months. The first thing on my list is an extremely hot bath, which I don't plan on coming out of very quickly."

"Agent Dunham is waiting outside to transport you. We can't let you leave without knowing you are stable to be walking around the city." His stern voice was unrelenting and I wondered if he didn't remember me if maybe Olivia did.

"Olivia is waiting right outside? Where's Walter? How is he doing? I need to see him. I need to check on him and Astrid. Where's Olivia?" Questions fall out of my mouth before I can even really understand what I am saying. Things still seem to be out of sync for me and I'm really just hoping he can understand.

"You know them?" He is now interested in me, hopefully as more than just a test subject to try and figure out what is happening to the worlds.

"Yes, Walter is my father and Olivia, she's my wife." I look down at my left hand, somehow hoping that when I came back into existence my ring would also appear. But then I realized it was only 2011, before we were even thinking of marriage.

Before he can say another word, I am on my way down the stairs to go find Olivia. It isn't hard since she is still driving the same black SUV. She is sitting inside of it, reading a case file. Probably mine.

I open the passenger door and Slide in. She closes the file and peers over at me. I stare hopefully at her, thinking maybe seeing me will spark something she doesn't even know is there. But she just looks at me in confusion. I sigh and look out the windshield.

"You are the guy they brought back into existence?" She asked, almost skeptical. I know what she is thinking. Even through all the weird things that have happened, is it really possible to seemingly disappear from reality?

"It's strange, I know. Try being the one who was actually erased, and not have their father and wife and everyone else who knew them even be able to recognize their face." She looked over with a frown as she stared at me.

"Did I know you?" She asks softly. Curiosity hidden between pain and emptiness. I wondered how Rachel and Ella were fending in this new life.

"You could say that. Is it possible you could at least take me to see my father before I am forced to be the FBI's new guinea pig?" She looked forward and sighed.

"I'm sorry I don't remember you. But you do seem familiar. Almost like déjà vu. Who is your father?" She asks curiously, itching to start the car.

"Walter Bishop." Her head shoots over and she is staring at me.

"Walter is your father?"

"Yeah, though he doesn't remember that now. I'm Peter Bishop." Hmm was her only response. She drove straight to Harvard, not even questioning my sanity, at least not out loud. She even gets out with me and walks with me all the way to the Kresge building, still in silence. Perhaps she feels she should remember me and that I was more than just an acquaintance. While she is beside me pondering, I walk in sync with her steps and nearly forget that the woman beside me has lost all sense of who I am.

Inside, we find Walter mixing none other than LSD. He looks up at me and is instantly frightened.

"You're not real!" He begins to chant and turns away so he's no longer looking at us.

"Walter. This is Peter. You helped bring him back into existence." Olivia rushes over to Walter and tries to calm him. To my surprise, she's successful. "He is real, Walter." I decide that I shouldn't come out with the fact that I am his son, so I just walk over and observe him.

"You were following me." He says angrily going back to his work.

"I'm sorry Walter. Thank you though. For helping me." He looks up but not at me and nods his head before turning back to measuring ingredients. I hope I could convince him not to despise me presence, but maybe that is a lost cause in this timeline. So I just turn to Olivia and have her escort me back to her car.

On the car ride to the holding facility I will be in, Olivia is the first to speak. "It must be hard." She eyes me. "To not have your family remember you. Not to recognize you in the least." She says softly and is turning onto a strangely empty street.

"I keep thinking I'm going to wake up any second." I admit. It honestly does feel more like a dream. My mind is still slow on details and I know I'm not fully processing anything. But either I am in a coma and have been for awhile or this is real. The former seems much more likely. Maybe the machine put me in a coma and being in the future and building the bridge and everything after that was all a life I had created in this dream state. Or at least I could hope so.

**So there's the Start of it. I hope you guys have enjoyed it so far. Review and let me know what you think :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I'm sorry for taking so long to upload! I write on my phone and don't often get the chance to get on the computer to upload. Thank you for the reviews and alerts and I hope you enjoy :)**

**PETER:**

To my surprise, I am kept in a small apartment. Much more homey than the tiny white room I had been imagining. I am tested for radiation, molecular cohesion, and probably everything else in the book. Massive Dynamic scientists are in and out of my apartment all day for three weeks taking blood, tissue samples, and giving me shots until they decide I am stable enough to go out into the city, but they still want to keep an eye on me. So I begin calling the small apartment home, which is good because I really can't afford anywhere else. I no longer exist.

When I finally do shower and get dressed to go out, as soon as I walk out of my door I wonder where to go. Usually I am either working on a case or somewhere with Olivia or Walter. Since that isn't really going to work out, I decide to go find a bar. Surely those are all still the same. And they are, I realize when I walk up to a little bar I would go to sometimes after cases. It wasn't my usual, but it was better than nothing. I was there for about two hours, sipping scotch, before Olivia showed up.

"Brandon said they were letting you out today." She announced as she took a seat next to me.

"How did you find me?" I asked, taking another swig from my eleventh. She looked as if she were debating what she was going to say.

"The FBI is tracking you." She admitted sheepishly, asking the bartender for her own drink. The FBI was tracking me? I had inadvertently given my rights up by coming back into existence in a world where nobody knew me, and I wondered if it was even worth it.

"Perfect. I've always wanted the FBI to watch my every move." I said with deep sarcasm. Olivia backed away slightly. "Is that what you're doing? Tracking me?"

She tightens her lips and nods once, "Not for the FBI though." She says quietly, taking a drink from the glass the bartender had just set in front of her. We sit quietly for a few minutes before one of us speaks again. "What was I like?" She hesitates, her words are soft and unsure. I'm not sure what to say, what I should reveal. I haven't spent enough time with her to notice the differences but she didn't seem much different from the woman I knew.

"Well, we worked together." I wished she knew our past, so after those long moments without her I would be able to hold her, kiss her, love her.

"What did you work as?"

"In 2011, I was a civilian consultant. Working with you, Walter, Astrid." I cut off. I really didn't want to talk or even think about the past.

"What's different?" She continued to ask questions. I wasn't sure why she was so interested.

"Walter seems more unstable. And everything involving me. I don't know. In a few weeks I'll know more." I answer, hoping she will drop the questions for now. She does. She pulls a card out of her pocket and hands it to me.

"I think you would be a great addition to Fringe division. I understand if you don't want to take the job. Maybe in a few weeks." She shrugs and I look at the card in her hand.

" I'll do it." I say taking the card and resume my job as a civilian consultant."

**Olivia:**

I wondered if he was aware of the six cameras in his apartment that was half the size of mine. I was sure he wasn't. I had been watching every day, even if only for a few minutes. Something about him fascinated me, and I thought if I observed him enough I would understand what it was.

I was sure he had worked in Fringe division before, so I had got his credentials approved and he now had the option of being a civilian consultant if he wanted to. That way I could learn more about him and find answers.

It was a Thursday when I looked at the surveillance videos and couldn't find him. I called Brandon to see if they had taken him to Massive Dynamic for tests. But they hadn't. He had been released to do whatever he wanted. Luckily they had agents following him and he was at a bar down the street from the observation building.

When I sat down next to him, it felt unreal. This man I had supposedly known before, worked with, was sitting here drinking and I had no idea who he was. It was like the whole world had gotten amnesia and only forgot him. I tried to search for anything that might let me remember him but it was no use. In my life I had always noticed something was missing and I believed I could find my answers in him. He knew things about a past life of mine and maybe in that life I had figured out what was missing, whatever it was I felt he knew the answers and I was going to get them however I could.

**Thank you for reading! Please review with any thoughts!**


	3. Chapter 3

**New Chapter! Thank you for Reading!**

**Disclaimer: I forgot this on the other chapters, but I swear I don't own Fringe. Even though I know there are many who with they did and I am not to be exempt.**

**Peter:**  
>It was our fourth case and we were trying to catch a guy that was switching people's memories. The first victims were two neighbors and after that none of the other victims knew each other.<br>There were eight people that we knew of that had their memories switched and we couldn't figure out how he had been doing it. There were no surgical incisions or even any indications that their brains had been operated on at all.  
>"I don't know if you guys did this." I start. I had learned over the past few weeks that most of the cases, if not all of them, were carried out differently in this new timeline. "On our first case with John, he and Olivia shared some kind of a mental state. After that, Olivia had a lot of his memories and confused them with her own. Maybe this is something like that." I suggest. Walter looks over to me as if a light has come on.<br>"Yes, perhaps their procedure is similar to having a shared dream state. But that doesn't explain having zero memories of their own life."

Later that week, Agent Lee had followed a lead to Pinehurst, leaving Olivia and me to sort through more files. Useless is what I thought they were. We had been going through files for the past week, trying to find something that might help us on our case, but they were all empty of relative information. It brought a sense of irony to the situation though, me looking back on all of the cases that they had without me. Each with their own slight differences.

She looked up at me when I let out a small laugh. I had found the file of a case I didn't recognize. A case that was dated nine days after I took off to the other side of the country. I wondered if at least this case was more similar to the one of my time.

"In the other timeline, the one you're from, did we save John?" She asked quietly, and I wondered what had happened in this timeline, what she knew, and why she even cared.

"Well, depends on what you mean by saved. Did we cure him, yeah, but he didn't live. I'm not really sure exactly what happened, you never told me."

"Did I really see his memories?"

"Yeah." I saw a contemplating look in her eyes before she set them back on whatever file she was reviewing. She wasn't aware of me staring at her half of the time, or at least she didn't say anything about it. This woman, strange with all of her likness, was beautiful in all the right ways. The way she would focus so intently on something that could hardly hold half of my attention. Probably partially because I was too busy focusing on her, wishing for what had been, what could be.

**Olivia:**

After he brought up my first case, with John, I had been wondering about the shared dream state he had mentioned. A place John and I had shared, a place where I had been able to see his memories. After a few days I had finally found the words to ask him about it. What did he mean we saved him but he didn't live? Something must have gone wrong afer that. Maybe he would have died on a later case. Whatever it was, it sort of made me feel better about not being able to save him because it sounded inevitable. Even though I didn't believe in fate. The other universe only proved that there was no such thing. But I figured out a way I could see somebody's memories, and I hoped Peter might let me see his.

**Hope you enjoyed! Please review with any thoughts.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright, another chapter. Thank you to all of those who reviewed and I hope you enjoy!**

**Peter:**

I sat in the small apartment, drinking whiskey in an almost rythmic pattern. Pour, drink, set on the table, pour drink set on the table. Things were becoming more mundane as they days went by and my patience was wearing down. I couldn't stop the flow of memories where my life was filled with love. Memories of Olivia and me, a movie of her smile filled my mind. And I realized, I was alone.

Walter was unable and unwilling to help me figure out what went wrong, Olivia was unaware of the time we were once one, Astrid didn't care wether I were here or there, and Broyles only cared about all the information I was able to share with the government. I felt more lonley than after my mom committed suicide and I was exploring the world with no love or home.

**Olivia:**

I woke up slowly, the sun shining through the crack in my floral curtains, and the soft breeze blowing them around. The stress I had welled up inside of me for the past three days had completely dissipated and I knew, today was going to be a good day.

**Peter:**

I walked into the lab, amazingly only slightly hung over from the previous night's recklessness. Walter was working on something I didn't really care to get into, so I went and sat in a chair and leaned my head against the back.

When he noticed me he rushed over carrying a syringe, "Oh, good, you're here." He hadn't been this excited to see me since I came back into existence, "Olivia asked if it would be possible to share a dream state with you!" He seemed excited, but it was making my head pound worse than it already was.

"Uh, okay Walter," I grumbled, "I'm a bit hungover, you think we could do this later?" I answered, not really hearing his words.

"We can do it tomorrow." He suggested, I was still unsure of what he was talking about but I just answered with a 'okay, I promise'. It wasn't until the next morning I had realized what I agreed to the previous day.

"Alright, you may want to take off your clothes, son." This was the first time he had called me son since I returned, he looked up at me and it was almost the exact expression he used to get. Then I realized what he had said.

"Why do I have to take off my clothes, Walter?" He walked behind me and I turned to continue watching him. He had a syringe filled with a white liquid.

"Well, perhaps you don't. I just thought it would be more appropriate to have you use the tank. Agent Dunham being a woman, and all." Walter pointed out as if it were obvious. He took my arm and tried to insert the needle, forcing me to quickly draw back.

"What the hell, Walter!" This frustrated him.

"This is a neccesary step for the procedure!" He growled angrily. I looked over to see Olivia laying on a table with he knees up, a light flashing over her.

"What's going on here?" I couldn't help the worry that had taken over the calm of my voice.

"Take your clothes off, and I will administer these drugs. Don't worry, it's a completely harmless blend. You will need them for the experiment." Walter assured, standing in front of me expectantly.

"Experiment?" I questioned, still unwilling to follow anything he was instructing me to do.

"Yes, you already agreed to it. You must hurry before Olivia comes out of hypnosis." She had seriously let him do this? I thought hard, trying to somehow pull the information from my foggy memories of what Walter had been rambling on about.

"Why is this even important?" I begged, beofre I did anything stupid I would really like some answers.

"I'm not sure. Agent Dunham seemed very intent on it. Perhaps she is unable to share the importance."

"Is this going to kill me?" Walter looked up at me.

"There are certain risks to every procedure, but I'm sure you won't. It's as safe as removing tonsels. Well, maybe not as safe." He paused and stared at a glass jar on the counter next to us, "I may not have asked for you to be here but I wouldn't do anything to hurt you." Walter said quietly, I inwardly growled at myself.

"I'm sorry, Walter. I don't think you would try to kill me."

"Well, then, take off your clothes." So I stripped down to my boxers to do this crazy experiment to show Walter I trusted him, I hoped I wouldn't regret it.

**Olivia:**

I woke up in a place I didn't recognize. Houses, trees, sidewalks. It was a neighborhood. The sun was shining but everything still looked as though it were a rainy day, and then it began raining. I ran up to the house I stood in front of to ask for shelter and Peter was already there.

"Olivia, you're home." He said and I wondered if this was real Peter or a dream Peter. I followed him in through to the kitchen and looked along the walls. Pictures were on the wall, hanging out of their place. Pictures of an older Ella and me, Rachel and Ella, Peter and me. The pictures of Peter and me held my attention. He was kissing me on the cheek as I laughed and another on our wedding day. A hole in my stomach appeared as I realized what Peter and I once had, that I've been missing out on. We were in love.

"This is all gone now." I jumped at his voice behind me. I turned around to see him. His expression as he looked at the pictures was pure sadness, I could feel it radiating off of him. I was beginning to feel even more emotions, happiness, joy, pain, longing. Emotions of the house as it disappeared and we were left in a forest. Dark, the moon and stars gave no light, the only sound was Peter stepping on leaves as he walked towards me.

"Do you know where we are?" I questioned, turning around to face him. He looked around and then up.

"No, you must have brought us here." Then this overwhelming feeling came over me. I couldn't decide what it was. Pleasure? Belonging? Love? I looked over to see Peter staring at me. Just standing there watching me as I looked around.

I got this urge to walk over to him. To touch him, to hug him, to feel my body next to his. He was drawing me in, my feet came to life and began moving themselves towards him. I put my hands on his cheeks and looked up into his eyes.

"Who are you?" I whispered, trying to search his eyes for an answer. He gently grabbed each of my wrists and lowered them to his waist, still watching me. He lifted his hands to cradle my face and leaned in, placing his lips on mine. Suddenly I began seeing images, like a movie on fastforward. My heart was quickenning as I tried to keep up with the images of a little boy at a lake house, the same boy crying as a teenager, and again as an adult. Running around the world. Me. In Iraq. We flew to the states and John, we saved him. Now Peter's asking me what happened and I won't tell him, why wouldn't I tell him?

She's not me. I feel the pain of discovering that it wasn't his Olivia. I was trapped on the other side. Now the pain is me not wanting him but it quickly turns to love. We share a bed, a house, a life. I was everything to him, and I can feel it. I am his whole life and now everything is different. He's drinking, everyday he's drinking away the life he once had. Only to help him escape the differences in this place he is now stuck.

I woke up with a jolt, back into the lab. The depression still lingering on my skin as I sat up. Walter helped Peter out of the tank and handed him a towel. Did he remember what had just happened or was it only in my brain.

"So, now you know everything." He said somewhat bitterly. This information was going to take some getting used to.

**So, end of another chapter! Please review and let me know what you think :) **


	5. Chapter 5

**Alright, so here's another chapter. I don't own Fringe or any of these characters. I hope you enjoy!**

**Olivia:**

It was after that I began to notice the looks he would give me when he thought I wasn't looking. Sometimes I could just feel his eyes boring into me and I would have to walk out of the room. Didn't he know I wasn't actually his wife. His wife was from a different timeline. I wasn't her, I didn't even know him but he knew me. He knew almost everything about me. My family and what they are like, my apartment, my worries, my cares. And me, I knew everything about him now. His history, his emotions, his passions, and most of all his love for Walter, Astrid...and me. That's what I hated most of all. We shared a life together once and he could remember all of it. And me? I couldn't remember a thing. Sure I knew things, but it wasn't the same as remembering. His feelings for me didn't magically give me feelings for him. Even though I often wished it had.

**Peter:**

"Hey, Olivia!" I called after the woman who was quickly leaving the lab. She quickly turned around, looking very uncomfortable under my gaze.

"Yes?" She rushed.

"Walter wanted another sample of the purple liquid they found in Amanda Jones' apartment." She nodded her head with pursed lips and quickly turned around in pursuit of her car. Me on the other hand, stood and watched her walk away until she was well gone, lost in thought. I wished I had never gotten into that tank. I wished I had known what I was getting into and I probably would have never gotten in to begin with. Ever since Olivia and I shared that dream state, things have been really awkward around the lab. Olivia avoiding me at all costs and everyone else wondering why.

I noticed her giving me sideways glances occasionally. No doubt trying to figure me out. Here I was who knew everything about her and now her knowing what we had, it freaked her out. Freaked her out so much she could barely even handle talking to me. At this point I was just glad I had so many years of practice surviving with no close friends or family. The only problem was knoing what I had lost, and that pained me more than anything else.

**Olivia:**

"Olivia, what's wrong?" Astrid asked due to my silence and I guess stressed disposition. Was it this obvious.

"What do you mean?" I acted as though there were nothing wrong like usual, but my act didn't work on Astrid. Not this time.

"Olivia, you've been stressed out for the past few weeks. Hardly talking to any of us. You haven't even been around as much for Walter."

"Well, Walter doesn't need me much anymore. He has Peter now." Her skeptical look proved she wasn't buying that lie either.

"We both know that isn't true. Ever since you did that mind thing with Peter." She had noticed. When I didn't respond she began again. "Olivia. We all need you. It's like you don't even care anymore. The only one you can even stand talking to now is Lincoln. I just, I just want to know why." She seemed so desperate and lost and I wasn't really sure how to talk about it.

"I do care." I assured quietly, but it didn't satisfy her.

"Then why don't you act like you do? Walter really misses you. And you always seem happy when you are with Lincoln but you can't seem to find the time to help anyone else." She accused.

"I don't get the memories with Lincoln, that's why!" I said, probably a bit too sharply. She was confused.

"What memories?" I was stuck now, to answer her questions.

"Peter's...From the other timeline. Lincoln is the only one who I don't get a new flash of the life we all had before. You don't know what it's like to be stuck in this life you feel like you don't belong only to get flashes of a life where you see yourself happy and open with someone. Somewhere that you didn't feel so lost."

"I'm sorry, Olivia. I didn't-"

"It's fine." I said quickly, cutting her off. The rest of the car ride we sat in silence, her trying to understand what I had said and me trying to forget.

**Peter:**

"Hey Astrid." I went and sat on a stood across from her in the lab. She looked up and smiled and for a second it almost felt like I was home.

"Hi Peter. What's up?" She asked, holding my gaze.

"Not much." I answered, not revealing the string of questions I would work into this conversation. She returned her gaze back to the small gadget she was observing. It had been found at a little empty warehouse that was within ten feet of all of our victims' houses.

"Did you check out that book I told you about?" I laughed.

"Yeah, the one about the antient giants?"

"So, what do you think?"

"Interesting." She smiled.

"I thought you would like it. We've been stuck on this case for so long everyone is beginning to get frustrated."

"I don't think that's Olivia's problem." I stated, trying to hopefully pry out any information she may know.

"No it isn't. She told me about your memories. You might want to let her have some space, your memories are giving her a lot of trouble." She warned softly. Astrid was the most like herself and the most welcoming of me. Everyone else had always been a bit wary.

"Yeah, I guess having all the memories of your husband from a different time stuck in your head could be quite troubling." She looked up at me with wide eyes.

"She didn't tell me that! You guys were married? I just thought you had a crush on her. I had no idea you actually got her to marry you." I gave a little laugh.

"Me neither! It wasn't easy, I made a lot of mistakes. But, I don't remember a lot from after 2011 anyway." I felt sort of relieved that someone knew my secret besides Olivia, since she was avoiding me and apparently everyone else around here.

"Knowing Olivia, that must have been hard." I gave a little smile thinking about the past, probably one of the first times I actually felt alright thinking about the past.

"We worked together for about three years before actually getting into a relationship and another year before we actually got married. But I loved her from about six months in, I didn't realize it until about a year later and I don't think she realized it until later either. It was a long journey, and looks like I'm going to have an even longer journey to even just be friends." Astrid patted my shoulder.

"I think she will warm up to you. I think she just needs to get used to all of her new knowledge." She spoke very motherly, just like always. At least one person was the same around here.

**Thank you for reading and I hope you liked this chapter! Please drop a review and let me know what you think :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fringe :)**

**AN:I'm really sorry I don't update more often. I wish I could but it seems whenever I think I will get more time, something happens. This week I have been taking care of my family who all seem to be getting sick. It's not easy to write as often as I wish I could but I always come back for more :) Here's another chapter, albeit a little shorter than my usual, but I hope you guys enjoy :)**

**Peter: **

This wasn't what I had planned, neither was it my fault. People didn't understand that. I was stuck here, just as they were stuck with me.

Everyday was like hearing a small part of one of your favorite songs but not being able to listen to the whole thing. I was being played with and I didn't know who by. Maybe God, if he really existed. Though even this seemed too cruel of a thing for a creator to do. Perhaps this was the devil. Or maybe the devil was just something God came up with to blame everyone's misfortunes on. Whatever was doing this God, Satan, the force of the universe...it was torture.

I found myself walking into my old bedroom. The bedroom Olivia and I shared. She was sitting cross-legged in the center of the fully made white bed looking down, her hair covering her face.

"Hey." I said softly, making my way over to mirror her, our toes touched in an all too familiar way. She continued to stare down so I ran my fingers through her hair to pull it away from her face.

"Hey." She answered softly. I lifted her chin to look me in the eyes.

"Where have you been?" I begged her.

"You know where I am." She whispered. I Lightly shook my head.

"No, I don't. Liv, please. Where are you?" How could she tell me I knew where she was at? I had no idea where she was, only the version of her who didn't know or love me.

"I'll always come back to you, Peter. I'll always find you."

"Olivia, please. I'm trapped in a different universe. I need to find you! I don't know what I'm doing here." Why didn't she seem to accept what I was telling her. She just looked back at me as if she knew the answers to every question ever asked.

"Don't worry. _I _will find _you_." She assured and grabbed my hands in hers. Our forehead fell together and we just sat there taking each other in.

"I love you." I whispered. She lifted her head, somewhat despondently. Moving it slowly to place a kiss on my cheek.

"I have to go. Take care of yourself." And just like that I was back in that small little apartment the FBI had stuck me in months earlier.

I slid out of the uncomfortable bed and made my way to the kitchen for a drink. I opened the light maple cabinet that hid the fridge. What would be my choice today? Tequila? Whiskey? Vodka? Definitely whiskey if I wanted to get through the rest of the night, so I pulled a bottle of Scotch out and reminded myself that I really needed to stop falling asleep during the day.

Just as I poured my first drink of the night, Olivia's last words replayed in my head as if we were back in our room.

"Take care of yourself." She sounded worried about me, she knew too much and she was effortlessly figuring out my newly forming habits. The words continued to replay in my head until I was forced to dump the drink down the sink and go get in the shower.

**Olivia:**

"Hey, Astrid. I'm going to be a little later today than you wanted me. Something came up, but I should be there by ten." I left the message for her to get whenever she woke up or checked her phone. I knew she didn't really wake up early on Sundays, and especially not since Peter showed up to help carry the burdens of Walter.

I was on my way to Somerville to have an early morning session with my therapist, Joel Gluck. I had found him a few weeks ago and we had been having bi-weekly sessions. This week, he was only available this morning at seven. I took what I could get. He wasn't an FBI therapist and he helped me without any records of my being there, with a price of course. Nobody knew what I was disappearing off to during the week and I was happy to keep it that way.

**Peter:**

"Oh, hey, Peter." Astrid closed her phone and greeted me, "It turns out I don't really have much for you to do, yet. Why don't you come back around ten?"

**Thank you for reading :) Please review and let me know what you think_ 3_**


	7. Chapter 7

**Peter:**

I didn't really have anywhere to go for the net two hours so I just stayed in the lab, available at any time if I were needed. I knew that if I did leave I would only end up back at that little apartment or the bar to try and escape from my problems. I had been getting so desperate to escape these days that when I passed by the cigarettes in the store they actually were appealing. I hadn't smoked since that time in high school when Brandon Hexley told me it would get rid of all of my problems. After a week I decided it did more damage than it helped.

So I went to the back and began reading _Science, Medicine, and Man._ It didn't help me understand anything that we were working on, but it was a good distraction. I lost myself in this book until I heard the lab door shut. It was at exactly 9:52 that Olivia Dunham walked through the lab doors. I sucked in a quick breath. I hadn't seen her in over a week and I didn't realize how much it hurt, even though she didn't know me.

She looked around, searching for Astrid I was sure. "She's in the back." I told her. She looked over to me and nodded with a forced smile. Then she disappeared into the back only to return a few minutes later, following Astrid.

"I needed you both here." Astrid began, "The workplace has been a bit heavy over the past few weeks. I just think we all just need to realize. Things are the way they are now and we can't change them. You are not married, you are not even friends, but you are coworkers. This is affecting the whole team. Maybe if we could all work together, we might be able to solve this case a little faster. That is why I asked both of you to come this morning. I think you two are in serious need of working out the problems between the two of you so we can get back to focusing on our cases." She looked with sharpness between the two of us and disappeared back into the back, leaving both Olivia and me completely dumbstruck.

"Well." I began, still looking towards Astrid's escape.

"I don't hate you." Olivia said quietly. I looked over to her crestfallen face. She was staring at the floor. Out of feeling awkward or ashamed, I couldn't tell.

"Well, that's good news." I gave a little chuckle. She looked up in confusion.

"I don't want you to hate me, but I'm not her. I don't want you mixing us up, expecting anything."

"I don't expect anything, Olivia." It came out a bit too loud.

"Don't tell me you don't ever confuse me for her." She said and then under her breath added, "Even I do that."

"Technically you are her, just with different experiences. But trust me, ever since I got here, I haven't been able to forget that you aren't the one I've spent the last three years with." She inhaled sharply.

"A few days ago, I was searching for a book and I was wondering who might have it. So I went to this guy Markham. I figured I had been there a lot and he always seemed able to help. When I got in there though, he didn't recognize me. I realized that he must have been someone you knew. He got me the book, but I've been thinking about it since."

"Which book?"

"That's what I want to know." She looked up at me, finally she looked me face to face. "ZFT?"

"Ah yes. ZFT. Zerstorung durch Fortschritte der Technologie."

"I started reading it. And then I remembered my abilities. The other cortexiphan subjects. Do you think I could get those back?" I didn't see why not. Just because I wasn't here doesn't make her abilities any different.

"Yeah. I could help you." I offered.

"Thanks."

"When do you want to start?" She looked hesitant, drawing her lips back as she spoke.

"Tonight, maybe. I think the sooner I start working on them, the better. You never know when we might need them." I smiled at the thought of me helping her, even if she wasn't the same Olivia. I knew mine would be proud. So that night at six, I made my way to her apartment. I was a little surprised at the change in bedding, furniture placement, and color scheme but it still was the same place.

"Hi, Peter. Come on in." And there I began helping her like I did with my Olivia in the future to this world. At first we worked on focusing. I didn't have that little cortexiphan subject awakening box that Jones had, so we tried on regular lights. It took a few weeks of hard work and many late nights until we reached results.

It was 12:04 in the morning and I was approaching falling asleep at her kitchen table. "Just, focus on this light and try to turn it off." I pointed up and then leaned on my hand. She looked up and began staring down the light. I began to doze off when the light suddenly went out.

"I think I did it!" She exclaimed.

"Huh?" I looked up and noticed she had. The light switch was still flipped on and the light was most definitely off. "Good. Great. Now turn it back on." She sighed before looking back up to undo what she just did, and when the light turned back on the smile on her face grew wide.

"I can't believe I did it!" She gleamed.

"You are capable of amazing things. Things far more impressive than turning off a light." She smiled down at me.

"Well then, I guess we'd better get to work on these amazing abilities." So over the next few months we worked harder than ever before, bringing up abilities that even my 2011 Olivia hadn't mastered yet. But the long case we couldn't solve continued on that way, unsolved. Luckily though, memories were no longer being switched. After our eleventh and twelfth victims, the switches just stopped. So the case went on the back burners and the agents began focusing on newer cases and fixing the holes between the two universes.


End file.
